Baking a tasty radical ecstatic spiritual community pie!

So Debbie and I were brainstorming the other day about the key ingredents we wish for in spritual community.
Some of us grew up with the seven UU principals:
* The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
* Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;
* Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;
* A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
* The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;
* The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;
* Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.



What would you add or change?
These were originally written pertaining to congregations alone, but growing up UU my experience was that these were spiritual principals to live in my daily life. As a youth in YRUU I saw conferences as a place where we got together to embody theses principals by creating intentional community based on unconditional love and acceptance.
As an adult going to congregational services I saw us talking about our principles, but it lacked the joyous embodiment of the youth community.

So I'm curious, what are the most important ingredients to you in spiritual community? What is it about circle worship that makes you feel at home? What is it about dancing in a peace march that sets your soul ablaze? What is it that is so satisfying about making a decision based on consensus even if it took 6 fucking hours? There is something of the sacred in all of these things for me. Where do you find it? What do you find lacking in our community that you long for? What is it we're building?

Blessed Be,
Suzanne

Born-Again Unitarians?

I have been reading a book called "The Irresistible Revolution" by a young man named Shane Claiborne - a young Christian from Tennessee who poignantly describes his alienation from Christianity but his deepening relationship with Jesus. I know that may be a bit of a far-off topic for many reading this, but I wanted to share a passage from the book that struck me as familiar:

"In middle school, I had a sincere conversion experience. We took a trip to a large Christian festival with bands, speakers, and late-night pranks. One night a short, bald preacherman named Duffy Robbins gave us an invitation to 'accept Jesus,' and nearly our whole youth group went forward (a new concept for most of us), crying and snotting, hugging people we didn't know. I was born again. The next year, we went to that same festival, and most of us went forward again (it was so good the first time ) and got born again, again. In fact, we looked forward to it every year. I must have gotten born again six or eight times, and it was great every time. (I highly recommend it.)"

The parallel I see is this: in circle worship ceremonies such as Unconditional Love or Angel Wash, we are asked to accept not Jesus but simply each other. The effects of this prompt seems to be the same - the heightened emotional and spiritual feeling we feel in the worship space. Indeed, other faiths aim for this feeling as well - one of the teachers at my Sufi camp this summer stated one day that we were looking for a "born-again experience" in our dancing.

"Born-again" seems to be synonymous with "ecstatic." Would this make us "born-again" Unitarians? What does that term even mean, and what do we gain by seeking that experience?

Faith and Activism" Story Circle @ Berkeley Fellowship: October 4, 2009, 12:15 pm

Hey y'all,

Please forward this announcement to your young adult groups or to anyone who is interested:

This Sunday, October 4, the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists will have their first in a series of Story Circles. These Story Circles are a part of BFUU's Oral History Project, which is currently producing an audio documentary of the political and religious life of the Fellowship. The topic will be: "Faith and Activism" and we will be telling stories of what our faith means in relationship to our society and how has it fueled or not fueled activist work in our lives. Come listen and share stories with members of the community and with this historically activist fellowship!

Story Circle is from 12:15 to 1:30pm. BFUU is on the southwest corner of Cedar and Bonita in Berkeley. From downtown Berkeley, head north on Shattuck and left on Cedar three blocks toward the bay. It is about 15 minutes walk from BART.